A Better Budget Process – Part II

Budgeting can be hard – especially when 27 proverbial cooks are in the kitchen. The church’s current budgeting process is clunky and, in some ways, impedes the good work that is being done by the church.

Think of it this way: for three years, members of the Executive Council tend the budget and create space within it to maintain the necessary programmatic funding for the church to thrive. These souls care for and become nimble custodians of the budget that can be cumbersome and overwhelming. For three years, they become familiar and well-versed in the technicalities and practicalities of the financial state of the church. Then every three years they hand it off to 27 people who may or may not have the same familiarity and dexterity.

In the new budgetary world reimagined by A048, the General Convention doesn’t get less of a say in the budgetary process, it just simply agrees that a committee of the Executive Council is better suited to draft, propose, and shepherd the budget through the General Convention for ultimate ratification by both houses. There isn’t less input by Deputies or Bishops, simply because a joint standing committee is being removed, but it does provide an easier more efficient path for a solid, church-focused, and Christ-centered product to be proposed to the General Convention.

By vesting authority to create and propose the budget to an Executive Council committee, the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops isn’t ceding their authority over the budget, but rather giving themselves capacity for more. In fact, better discussion may ensue because a more wholistic and comprehensive product (think of all the pre-filed resolutions with budget mandates) hits the floor of both houses which ultimately can amend and the adopt/ratify. For those worried about representation in the creation of the budget, in addition to the elections of persons from the general convention, there are elected representatives from each of the provincial synods. The church is governed by stellar people, fully capable of doing this work.

Change is hard, but so is budgeting for a multi-national Church. This proposal allows more efficiency, better craftsmanship, and an all-around ease to an otherwise complicated and arduous process.